Dr Vikram Sarabhai, known as the ‘father of the Indian space programme’, helped establish the Indian space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and led it from the front as its chairman.
Sarabhai did also set up many other institutions in the country, including the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and the Variable Energy Cyclotron Project, Kolkata.
Not many are aware that he also set up the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, with his wife, the famed dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai.
This man with a vision and mission was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1966 and a posthumous Padma Vibhushan in 1972.
Sarabhai died of unknown reasons on 30 December 1971 in Kerala, after inaugurating the Thumba Railway Station earlier in the day.